Aaha Kalyanam

Aaha Kalyanam
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	A. Gokul Krishna
Produced by	Aditya Chopra
Written by	Rajiv Rajaram (Dialogues)
Screenplay by	Habib Faisal
Story by	Maneesh Sharma
Starring	Nani Vaani Kapoor Karthik Nagarajan
Music by	Dharan Kumar
Cinematography	Loganathan Srinivasan
Edited by	Bavan Sreekumar
Production company	Yash Raj Films
Release dates	21 February 2014 (2014-02-21)
Country	India
Language	Tamil
Budget	₹10 crore (US$1.5 million)[1]
Box office	₹43.5 crore (US$6.5 million)(Both versions)[1]

Aaha Kalyanam (English: Wow, Marriage) is a 2014 romantic comedy film directed by debutant A. Gokul Krishna and produced by Aditya Chopra's Yash Raj Films.^[2] A remake of Maneesh Sharma's 2010 Hindi film, Band Baaja Baaraat, the film features Nani and Vaani Kapoor in the lead roles.^[3] Although it was planned for bilingual release, it was shot completely in Tamil, and a dubbed Telugu version was released simultaneously along with the Tamil version.^[4][5][6] The first teaser was launched on 20 December 2013^[2] and the film was released worldwide on 21 February 2014.

Plot

Shakthivel (Nani) is street-smart and fun-loving. Intelligent and quirky, Shruti (Vaani Kapoor), who assists the wedding coordinator, sees Shakthi at the front of the food serving line and suspects that he is gatecrashing to eat for free. She confronts Shakthi, who quickly summons his friend, the videographer at the wedding, and pretends that he is part of the film crew and has a right to be there. After seeing her dance at the wedding, Shakthi cannot resist the temptation to make a video of Shruti doing her dance routine.

The next day, Shakthi calls those involved in the wedding and manages to get Shruti's name and her college. He then chases her down on her bus ride home and tries to impress her with a DVD of her dance routine at the wedding. Shruti is not interested in Shakthi and reveals that her main interest in life is starting her own wedding planning business by the name 'Getti Melam'. Shakthi's enthusiasm for courtship is quickly dampened once Shruti launches a long pitch of her business ideas.

Shakthi, meanwhile is under pressure from his parents to come back to their village and work on their sugarcane fields, and Shruti is being coaxed by her family to get married at the earliest. But Shruti makes a deal with her parents that after her exams, she will take five years to get her business running before getting married. When Shakthi's father comes to take him back to his village, Shakthi refuses and lies that he is starting a wedding planning business. He now goes back to Shruti who refuses him as she was worried that romantic complications would arise. Shakthi promises that it will never be a problem, but Shruti is not interested.

Shruti goes to meet with Chandralekha (Simran), a famous wedding planner, with Shakthi tagging along. She hopes that she will be hired and get the opportunity to learn about planning "high-class weddings". Chandra shows no interest, but by sheer coincidence loses one of her male workers at that moment. Short on time, she spots Shakthi next to Shruti, and offers him the job. Shakthi accepts only on one condition that both him and Shruti are hired together. While checking the arrangements, Shruti learns that Chandra is cheating her clients by ordering cheap arrangements of flowers and decorations so she can earn more commission. Later, when an irate bride's father confronts Chandra, she blames Shruti, claiming it was her fault. Angry at Chandra for accusing Shruti, Shakthi yells back that she has no right to treat her employees like this. They quit and Shruti, calling him her partner, leaves with him, warning Chandra that they will cross paths.

The two thus begin "Getti Melam", with the work equally split between the two. Their first project is very successful and the duo plans many more small weddings. Finally, they get their first big client by stealing them away from Chandra. After a lot of work the wedding is a huge success. That night, after the event, they dance to celebrate and both end up slightly drunk. A simple hug turns into more, and the two make love that night. Afterwards, Shakthi lies awake all night, worried about what had happened.

When Shruti starts calling him "dear" in the morning, he is obviously uncomfortable with it. Not wanting to hurt her feelings, Shakthi behaves awkwardly around her over the next few days, while Shruti realizes that she has fallen in love with him. Shruti tries to reassure Shakthi that she's not like other women he's been with who follow him around everywhere. Shakthi, misunderstanding, believes that she's telling him that the night didn't mean anything to her. Relieved, he tells her it meant nothing to him as well. Shruti pretends to agree but cries after he leaves. This creates a tense atmosphere between the two. They have a huge fight resulting in Shruti breaking the partnership and forcing Shakthi to leave the company. Shakthi vows to start his own wedding planning business and the two go their separate ways. However, they don't do as well by themselves, unable to handle the workload without their partner and both enterprises end up suffering huge losses, plunging them into debt.

They finally get a big contract, but it is contingent upon them working together as a team. The bride had been a guest at the first big wedding they'd done and wanted the same level for her own wedding. Facing creditors, they agree to partner up again for this one wedding for the sake of recovering their own losses. They divvy up the workload and each focus on their own departments. Shakthi and Shruti perform together for the wedding. The performance is a success and the next day, Shakthi tells Shruti that they should be partners again, saying that Getti Melam was never as successful as when they were together. Shruti refuses his offer, telling him that she is getting married in two months to her fiance, Siddharth, and will move to Dubai with him after the wedding. Shakthi is stunned and immediately argues with her that she can't get married, saying it is "totally wrong".

During the rest of the wedding preparations Shakthi pesters Shruti about her engagement, claiming that she'd be moving too far from her parents or that Dubai wouldn't suit her. When none of those reason dissuade her, Shakthi accuses her of her getting married to make him jealous, claiming that she'd fallen in love with him and that this was a way to get revenge because he paid her no heed after their night together. Shruti answers that she is not doing it for revenge, but for her own security and her parents' satisfaction to see her well-settled in life. She admits that she did fall in love with Shakthi, but since he didn't feel the same, she had moved on. Shruti answers a call from Siddharth and walks away sadly, leaving Shakthi alone.

At the sudden thought of losing her forever, Shakthi realizes that he has always been in love with Shruti, but was too scared to acknowledge it in fear of jeopardizing the business. Desperate to win her back, Shakthi steals Siddharth's phone number from Shruti's cell and calls him, telling him to back off and that Shruti was his. Hearing what Shakthi had done to Siddharth, Shruti angrily runs off to find Shakthi and confronts him where he is waiting for her on a rooftop. Shakthi tells Shruti that he'd loved her all along and was a fool to have run away from her love. Shruti calls off her engagement and the two share a passionate hug.

Cast

• Nani as Shakthivel 'Shathi'
• Vaani Kapoor as Shruti Subramaniam
• Karthik Nagarajan as GK
• Badava Gopi as Hyder
• M. J. Sriram as Ramesh
• Five Star Krishna as Inspector
• Simran as Chandralekha, a famous wedding planner

Production

UTV Motion Pictures were reported to have cast Ravi Teja and Trisha in the Telugu version of the film titled Bamchikbam, but the studio later dismissed reports.^[7] Other reports suggested that Tamannaah would feature in a Tamil version of the film alongside a newcomer, but Yash Raj Films maintained that they had not sold the remake rights of the film and would produce South Indian versions of the film themselves.^[8] The Tamil and Telugu versions of the film were cast in doubt when Yash Raj Studios chose to pursue legal action against the makers of the Telugu film, Jabardasth, citing the film's plot was inspired directly from Band Baaja Baaraat.^[9] However, the producers maintained that a South Indian version would still go ahead.

Nani signed on to be the leading actor of the film in December 2012 and a photo shoot was held with actress Vaani Kapoor, who had appeared in Yash Raj Films' Hindi ventures, by March 2013.^[10][11] During the making of the film, Vaani Kapoor took training in Tamil and Telugu, while she also revealed that the original Hindi film's script would be adapted to suit the culture of the South Indian audience.^[12] Dharan Kumar was signed on to be music director for the project, composing new tunes rather than retaining the original film's music.^[13]

The project began shoot by the end of May 2013 and shot in Hyderabad with Padam Kumar, head of Yash Raj Film's operation in South India, being appointed the creative producer on the project.^[14] Scenes were shot predominantly in a swift schedule in Chennai, completing most portions of the shoot with little publicity.^[15] The team then shot a schedule in early September 2013 in Mysore in a set erected near Lalith Mahal Hotel, with rain partially disrupting progress.^[16] Although it was planned as a bilingual it was completely filmed in Tamil only and was later dubbed in Telugu while the songs and climax scenes were individually shot in both the languages.^[17]

Release

The film initially scheduled to release on 7 February 2014 but postponed to 21 February 2014. The film released in 900 screens worldwide for both versions.^[18]

Critical reception

Baradwaj Rangan from The Hindu wrote "Gokul Krishna's remake follows the original almost beat for beat, but never does anything more. And despite some wonderfully conversational dialogue, we're left with the strange feeling of watching a Hindi movie dubbed in Tamil, along with the realisation that a story alone doesn't make a movie."^[19] IANS gave the film 2.5 stars out of 5 and stated "Aaha Kalyanam is like going to a colourful wedding and being served tasteless food."^[20] Gautaman Bhaskaran from Hindustan Times gave a review stating "Indeed, despite high production values (a contrast to most Tamil movies which suffer in this area) and an impressive degree of sophistry (which Bollywood cinema is known for), Aaha Kalyanam did not wow me" and rated the film 2/5.^[21]

M. Suganth of The Times of India rated the film 3 stars out of 5 and stated "like the concept of wedding planning, the film too feels a little alien, and we don't really fall in love with it entirely.... And, yet, for all these flaws, Aaha Kalyanam manages to hold your interest and that is mainly because of Habib Faisal's winning script."^[22] Sify wrote, "This new-age romance works big time due to the spontaneity of the fresh lead pair, as they light up the screen with their terrific on-screen chemistry. Debutant director Gokul Krisha has packaged the film smartly."^[23] IndiaGlitz too gave a positive review stating "In all, the movie is a clean entertainer for all" and added that the film is a "Fun.frolic and colourful lighthearted enjoyment" and rated the film 3.5/5.^[24] Behindwoods gave 2.75 stars out of 5 and wrote, "Aaha Kalyanam is like a near perfect wedding, which has very less unpleasant moments that are completely overshadowed by the overflowing happiness."^[25]

Box office

The opened 80–90% occupancy on first day collected ₹7.62 crore at the box office while in Telugu version grossed ₹4 crore for adding up ₹11.62 crore at the box office, which is the biggest ever opening in Nani's career.^[26][27] According to the International Business Times, the film subsequently did average business in Tamil Nadu, while its performance in Andhra Pradesh was poor.^[28]

Soundtrack

The soundtrack for Aaha Kalyanam was composed by Dharan Kumar. The lyrics were written by Thamarai and Madhan Karky.

All lyrics written by Madhan Karky (except where noted). 

References

External links

• Official website
• Aaha Kalyanam at the Internet Movie Database